- William Pooley worked up to 18 hours a day surrounded by death
- He is now being treated on a London ward having been airlifted home
- Colleagues said he pledged to stay in West Africa for 6 more months
- They say he is determined to return to the region when he has recoveredÂ
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The British nurse struck down by ebola while working in West Africa has vowed to return to the disease-hit region as soon as he is better.
William Pooley contracted the deadly virus while working 18 hour days at a desperately understaffed hospital in Sierra Leone, where medics are battling to contain the outbreak.
He is now being treated on a London hospital ward after he was airlifted back to the UK by the RAF after catching ebola from the very victims he was trying to save.
But he has told friends in Africa he is sure he will beat the disease – and is determined to fly back to the region to save other victims when he recovers.
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Dedicated: William Pooley in his blue scrubs seen working in Freetown, Sierra Leone, before he caught ebola
Care worker William Pooley pictured just days before flown to the UK after testing positive for the Ebola virus
Gabriel Madiye, who worked alongside Mr Pooley at the Shepherd’s Hospice in Freetown, was one of the last people to speak to the British nurse before he was flown home.
He told the Sun: ‘He was very sure that once he was in England, the excellent medical care in Great Britain would help him recover in a matter of weeks and he would come back to us.’Â
Before contracting ebola, Mr Pooley, 29, had graphically depicted the horror in African hospital where he had selflessly volunteered to help those stricken by the outbreak.
He was forced to make the painful decision to leave sufferers alone overnight after the other staff fled. It came after angry locals rioted outside the hospital in response to rumours that ebola was a ruse to steal sufferers’ blood and harvest their organs.
‘We gave the patients water and paracetamol and then we had to walk out,’ he had said. ‘Patients are dying the most horrible deaths. I’m expecting to find several corpses tomorrow morning.’Â
Mr Pooley was pictured in a white infection control suit at the hospital in Kenema, the third largest city in Sierra Leone and a hot-spot for ebola.
Caring: Mr Pooley, sitting on ground writing, was forced to make the painful decision to leave sufferers alone overnight after the other staff fled
He remained positive when he was interviewed less than a fortnight ago, choosing to focus on the patients who had recovered.
‘It’s great seeing them walk away after some of them have been in a terrible state,’ he told the Guardian newspaper.
But the British nurse also spoke of chronic staffing shortages, the excruciating pain of ebola sufferers, mothers watching their children die, and how patients had to lie next to corpses for hours because there were not enough staff to move the bodies.
‘It’s the easiest situation in the world to make a difference. I’m not particularly experienced or skilled, but I can do the job and I am actually helping,’ he told Sierra Leone-based blogger Jo Dunlop.Â
Fellow volunteer Professor Robert Garry, of Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, praised Mr Pooley’s dedication to his ebola patients.
He said: ‘Will was working longer and harder than just about anyone out there. He was putting in 12 to 18-hour days.
Mr Pooley grew up in a close-knit family in an idyllic rural setting in the Suffolk village of Eyke
‘We have been understaffed at the hospital. Nursing staff have been afraid to go in.’
Dr Oliver Johnson, who has also been helping ebola victims in Sierra Leone, said Mr Pooley was an ‘extraordinary guy’ who knew the risks involved but was prepared to take them for the sake of the patients and his colleagues.
Mr Pooley’s family yesterday praised the doctors treating him at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London.
They said in a statement: ‘We would like to express our thanks to all involved in bringing our son back to the UK.
‘We have been astounded by the speed and way which the various international and UK government agencies have worked together to get Will home.
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